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Victoria Olson & Ceramics Showcase
The following description was submitted by the event organizer.
Sidestreet Arts is thrilled to present Victoria Olson and Ceramics Showcase for its August featured show. Featured artists: Victoria Olson, Michelin Chess, Kaye Blankenship, Lara Duren-King and Nickolas Hurlbut
Victoria Olsen (she/her)
Operating under the shop name of “So & So”, Victoria Olson is a Portland-based artist who can’t stop painting. Her mediums of choice include gouache, watercolor, pastels, and colored pencil. Her painting is expressive and explodes with color and movement, offering the viewer a glimpse into Victoria’s full-bodied zest for life. She captures the personality of her subjects beautifully through gestural mark-making and vibrant pops of complementary colors and shapes. Whether describing a hot pink rabbit, a golden unicorn or a young woman posing with a massive butterfly, she loves combining elements of fantasy and realism. Often her work explores her specific brand of human portraiture, especially representing women alongside their surreal animal or insect friends or against a backdrop of zebra stripes or zig-zags. Often, these backgrounds of repeating plants or animals are carefully arranged behind the subject like wallpaper, showing the central subject within a context of bees, goldfish, or ladybugs. She knows how to pull her subject up off the canvas or page with her wild and unusual use of color and by juxtaposing them against an opposing context. View more of her work on Instagram, Threads and TikTok as @soandsopdx.
Michaelyn Chess (she/her)
Michaelyn Chess channels dreams, relationships, and personal experiences into vibrant, maximalist ceramics that speak to the spirit. Each one-of-a-kind piece invites playfulness and whimsy, offering a breath of fresh air amidst the challenges of modern times. A millennial born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Michaelyn is a mostly self-taught ceramic artist who can be found running marathons and exploring the world when she’s not covered in mud at the studio. You can find more of her work and learn more about her story by following her on Instagram @madebymichaelyn.
Kaye Blankenship (she/her)
Kaye Blankenship is the creator behind Odd Fish Ceramics. This work was born from a deep love of ceramic form and letting intuition guide her creative process. Rarely does she know what a piece will look like until it is complete. Working in porcelain as her sculptural medium is unusual, but she finds its buttery softness to be an excellent conduit for the organic shapes she craves. She spent several months pursuing the idea of memory as a river for her MFA thesis in 2023, and wanted to explore what fish within that river could look like. Her work has since expanded beyond the memory metaphor, allowing her to experiment with ideas outside the aquatic. She enjoys the quality of fishy forms and will likely continue to play with that motif forever, but other sculptures and functional wares call to her as well. Beyond ceramics, she is also a high school art teacher, a newly minted parent, a theater designer, a goofy gremlin, someone who actually hates eating fish, and much, much more. You can find out more on her website, www.kayeblankenship.com, and on her ceramics Instagram @oddfishceramics
Lara Duren King (she/her/they)
Lara Duren King, the creator behind DeeDee & Shark, took the name from her son’s stuffed animals. Her son has since stopped playing with stuffed toys, but the idea that the world is more exciting with a little imagination has remained. DeeDee & Shark’s ceramics are made on the wheel and/or hand-sculpted. Each object incorporates drawing, carving, lots of detail, texture, and surface design. Lara finds beauty in the grotesque, exploring darker themes that combine a witchy sensibility with a penchant for ghosts, bats, toads, and body horror. Themes range from cute to creepy, but all inhabit the same fantasy world. Her pieces have an expressive, painterly quality and often celebrate the portraiture of animals in their natural habitats. She is a prolific artist who can be found often at local markets and pop-up art shows throughout Portland. You can find her work in a wide variety of street fairs and markets as well as big shows like the Oddities and Curiosities Expo, Sisters of Lilith, and Crafty Wonderland. Her work can be seen online at deedeeandshark.com and as @deedee_and_shark on Instagram.
Nickolas Hurlbut (he/they)
Nickolas is a queer creator from Portland, specializing in functional handmade ceramic mugs, pots, vases, housewares and bolo ties. His work in stoneware and porcelain can be described as modern, simple and bright, with a primary goal of creating objects that bring joy and make people smile. A few of Nickolas’ favorite subjects include fishbones, happy faces, fried eggs and rainbows. He enjoys incorporating organic pastels and earthy textures, as well as colorful and graphic iconography. His work is sometimes conceptual and thought-provoking, and almost always playful and fun. Nickolas earned his MAT (master of Arts in Teaching) from Lewis and Clark in 2017. His favorite part of teaching ceramics to K-12 kids was seeing students fall in love with the medium. He holds reverence for inclusivity and social justice that often shows in their work, and upholds the importance of encouraging students to make what they want by allowing for independent thought and creativity instead of control. A quote Nickolas lives and creates by was said by the Dalai Lama: “Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.” He strives to achieve a small piece of immortality by sharing his creativity and knowledge with the world.